Thursday, March 25, 2010

Republicans resort to fear and violence in response to health care reform

The Republican Party and its Tea Party followers have responded to the new health care law with venomous attacks, including racist taunting of Congressmen and attacks on Congressmen's homes.

This is profoundly disturbing because their over-the-top rhetoric creates a climate where violent acts are justified, One of the bricks thrown through a Congressman's window read:"extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."

In opposing legislation that provides health insurance to 31 million Americans, the Republican Party leadership is continuing its tradition of opposing any effort to create a more just and secure society for working men and women.

Not long ago it opposed Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Voting Rights Act. The Republican Party, the Dixiecrats who have now joined their ranks and the violent fanatics they inspire are the descendants of right-wing night riders and the Klan vigilantes who not long ago firebombed homes and churches and lynched men and women who wanted the United States to live up to its promise that "all men are created equal...."

Bob Herbert of the New York Times writes these new attacks are nothing new:

For decades the G.O.P. has been the party of fear, ignorance and divisiveness. All you have to do is look around to see what it has done to the country. The greatest economic inequality since the Gilded Age was followed by a near-total collapse of the overall economy. As a country, we have a monumental mess on our hands and still the Republicans have nothing to offer in the way of a remedy except more tax cuts for the rich.

This is the party of trickle down and weapons of mass destruction, the party of birthers and death-panel lunatics. This is the party that genuflects at the altar of right-wing talk radio, with its insane, nauseating, nonstop commitment to hatred and bigotry.His column is worth reading and is linked here.Herbert's colleague at the Times, Timothy Eagan asks:

Do Republicans really want to campaign in favor of insurance companies’ right to drop people when they get sick? Do they really want to knock the 25-year-old graduate student, living on Top Ramen and hope, off his parents’ health care? Are they going to deny tax credits for small businesses?

It was the ancient Greeks who gave us a sense of what Republicans will be living with under this pact with rage. Many people are afraid of the dark, the saying goes. But the real tragedy is those who are afraid of the light.